Lovely folds her arms when we say prayers. It might just be the cutest thing ever. (except maybe the way she dances in her high chair. or the way she flaps her arms and tries to fly to me with bursting excitement when I pick her up from daycare. Or the way she babbles nonstop, 100% her own language, complete thoughts that I desperately wish I understood. okay, she's just so wonderfully adorable that there are simply not words to describe it.)
Ladybug is usually first to volunteer for prayers. And I hate to admit we don't mind at all because I know that it will be short, sweet and right to the point. So she wraps her arms in tight, ducks her head and furrows her brow. Despite much coaching, she cannot close her eyes. It's almost comical, sometimes annoying and rather ridiculous, but for some reason, she cannot figure out how to close her eyes for prayers. So instead, she just bunches up her eyebrows, appearing somewhat angry and launches into her prayer. But she offers the sweetest and most sincere thoughts. My favorite is that she always remembers daddy, asking "please bless come home soon" or "thank you my daddy".
And my precious, sweet and wonderful little Butterfly. She's more hesitant at mealtimes, rarely volunteering but will if called upon. But at bedtime prayers, she opens up, genuinely and sincerely talking with her Friend. She rambles about trivial things, favorite dresses or playdates with friends. But without prompting, she will often remember and ask for blessings upon a particular family member or friend in need. The other day she told me she was missing her Gram, (her great-grandmother who recently passed away). I agreed with her. "No, Mom. I really miss her." She continued on to tell me she was going to go home and pray and talk to her Gram. She matter-of-factly explained that Gram was with Heavenly Father now so if she could pray to Heavenly Father, she can pray and can talk to her Gram too.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
TGIF!
This week was long.
it started with a 7:30 am life insurance exam. Months ago, this helped motivated me to reach my goal weight. I reached that goal, plateaued and became less committed. Then given three days warning, I suddenly wondered if I was still at my goal weight. A weekend full of tempting Halloween treats probably wasn't the best way to reassure myself. (but good news, I did squeak in at my goal weight after all).
The contract on our house fell through. They couldn't get financing and had to retract their offer. Now it's back on the market and seeming less likely that it would sell before spring.
Failed first attempt at filming for my video certification. Really, it was bad. My ego was pretty battered by the time I was done. Try again next week.
My good friend filmed the next day and was nearly perfect. Happy for her but my fragile ego was not soothed.
Husband was gone all week on a business trip = not enough sleep. And when he did come home, it was after a long string of delays and rerouted flights, arriving at 2am and finding out that when the airline forced him to check his coat (with keys) and carry on bag at the gate, they also lost it. I had to call my in laws to come stay with the girls while I made the hour long drive to the airport to take him an extra key to his truck and then drive home again.
Then this morning, long story short, I managed to donate my car key to the city sewer system.
But on the other hand...
fantastic night with my bunko group
playdate with grandma, including my favorite restaurant
my Relief Society lesson on Sunday went really well
attended "Girls Night Out" with one of my best friends, including a fantastically funny and inspiring keynote address from Hillary Weeks, tasty food and mini massage.
Teaching my regular classes at the gym went much better than filming, I love this program!
it started to snow. it's fresh and beautiful and my little girls were so excited.
Ladybug had her school Halloween party this week and was adorable in her Minnie Mouse dress.
the girls have been really good and we've had so much fun.
family playdate tonight with some great friends.
yea for the weekend!
it started with a 7:30 am life insurance exam. Months ago, this helped motivated me to reach my goal weight. I reached that goal, plateaued and became less committed. Then given three days warning, I suddenly wondered if I was still at my goal weight. A weekend full of tempting Halloween treats probably wasn't the best way to reassure myself. (but good news, I did squeak in at my goal weight after all).
The contract on our house fell through. They couldn't get financing and had to retract their offer. Now it's back on the market and seeming less likely that it would sell before spring.
Failed first attempt at filming for my video certification. Really, it was bad. My ego was pretty battered by the time I was done. Try again next week.
My good friend filmed the next day and was nearly perfect. Happy for her but my fragile ego was not soothed.
Husband was gone all week on a business trip = not enough sleep. And when he did come home, it was after a long string of delays and rerouted flights, arriving at 2am and finding out that when the airline forced him to check his coat (with keys) and carry on bag at the gate, they also lost it. I had to call my in laws to come stay with the girls while I made the hour long drive to the airport to take him an extra key to his truck and then drive home again.
Then this morning, long story short, I managed to donate my car key to the city sewer system.
But on the other hand...
fantastic night with my bunko group
playdate with grandma, including my favorite restaurant
my Relief Society lesson on Sunday went really well
attended "Girls Night Out" with one of my best friends, including a fantastically funny and inspiring keynote address from Hillary Weeks, tasty food and mini massage.
Teaching my regular classes at the gym went much better than filming, I love this program!
it started to snow. it's fresh and beautiful and my little girls were so excited.
Ladybug had her school Halloween party this week and was adorable in her Minnie Mouse dress.
the girls have been really good and we've had so much fun.
family playdate tonight with some great friends.
yea for the weekend!
Monday, October 22, 2012
teeth
During a recent tickle fest, I had Lovely pinned upside down and during her adorable, can't-breathe-I'm-laughing-so-hard giggling, I noticed a glimmer of white teeth across the top of her mouth. Upon closer inspection, I realized that my little "two-tooths" as I have called her for several weeks now, actually has six teeth! Her top four teeth have managed to sneak in without me noticing (which explains her recent fussiness). The two of her left are all the way through. Her right eye-tooth is edging its way in and her right front is still working, peeking just under the gum surface.
Updated vocabulary list:
mama
mama
dada
banana
thank you
chocolate
peas (please)
uh-oh
dink (drink)
marshmallow
go
She refuses a sippy but loves straws and is learning to drink from a regular cup. She's walking about a third of the time now and loves to climb. Ladybug was/is my mountain goat as she can scale and height but Lovely is my spelunker and loves to crawl into and under things, creating her own tunnels and hiding places that I struggle to reach. She's super ticklish, especially on her belly, thighs and feet (today she put my hands on her feet asking "tickle tickle"). She sleeps 12 hours solid at night (minus the recent fussiness) and is the most patient, sweet, well behaved baby I've ever seen. Hopefully that continues. Her unruly hair curls tightly in back and is wispy straight in the front. She has the most fantastic baby smile with a grin that lights up her whole face and shines into her brilliant blue eyes (but she's very hard to photograph as her eyes are closed in nearly every picture taken with a flash, perhaps light sensitive?) Her favorite toys (besides removing and scattering every toy from the play kitchen or baby center) are her fisher price princesses. She will meticulously take them out of their bag one at a time and line them up next to me, saying "thank you" as she places each one. She also LOVES the building blocks, especially when her sisters will help her build and destroy tall towers (with delighted glee). By this age, her sisters were already devoted "daddy's girl"s, but Lovely retains her affection for me. She goes to Daddy eagerly but given the choice, she usually picks me for her cuddle partner. (please keep doing this, it would be too sad if all of you turned on me.)
family Halloween party
The weekend was a blitz, one of those where I tried to fit too much in and we didn't get to it all but had a ton of chaotic fun trying.
On Friday I went out with our fabulous Realtor (and one of the infamous favorite aunties) to look at houses. Husband was out of town on business but since his schedule is particularly busy this month, I was trying to do some preliminary work. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted but needed to clarify some details. However, in looking at our options, I found that I loved everything and promptly doubled my range of choices, rather than narrowing them down. But it was a great experience, I learned a lot, fell in love with a few ideas and had lots of research to report back to Husband that night.
That evening, I arrived home just in time to gather up the girls and meet my mom and another favorite auntie (this one from my side of the family) for a quick dinner. We lounged and laughed and played until the girls went to bed and then we played some more (late night chick flick).
Saturday morning was one of those pretty perfect weekend moments where the girls come rolling in, delighted to discover that Daddy had snuck in during the night. We have a tasty and leisurely breakfast while we make plans for the day. Since we had a busy day before us, we immediately set to work. The girls helped me frost cupcakes for that evening's Halloween party and gathered some party materials. Then Husband and I went for a drive so I could show him some favorite results from my house hunting research. It's fun and exciting and a little overwhelming. No official decisions yet but we might be getting closer.
Time flew and we dashed back to the house, gathered the girls and met up with family for a lunch date party. Both of my brothers and their families, plus my cousin and his family, plus another cousin, aunt and my mom were there so we made quite the group. Children outnumbered adults and there was a frenzy of eating, laughing, talking, playing and general mischief. Eventually we headed back to our house where we spent the afternoon raking leaves, cooking dinner for that evening's Halloween party, coloring pictures and playing with toys.
The evening was fantastic. Our Halloween feast (mostly Pinterest inspired) was a blast. We had two kinds of soup accompanied by bones (rolls shaped as such) dripping with blood (strawberry jam), candy corn cups (fruit cups layered with pineapple, mandarin oranges and cool whip), devil's eyes (deviled eggs), graveyard goodies (steamed veggies and crackers artistically arranged and sprinkled with cheese), mummy men (hot dogs wrapped with thin pieces of biscuit dough) and monster cupcakes (cupcakes decorated with candy to be mummies or monsters) for dessert. It was silly and creative and fun and tasted great.
We kicked off the party with donuts on a string before changing into our costumes. The kids paraded and danced while I scrambled to finish assembling our official party games. We started by decorating our monster jugs (empty milk jugs with the top cut off) with scary/fun sticker faces. We used these for bowling and then the kids each kept their jug to collect candy and prizes throughout the night (and could use for trick or treating too if they wanted). We played the eye ball bounce (bouncing ping pong balls into candy-filled cups. if they make the shot, they keep the candy.) and pin-the-spider-on-the-web. We tried playing pumpkin patch (musical chairs using paper plates featuring a giant pumpkin) but my kids were too tired (having missed naptime) and not understanding the game, promptly broke down into tears. So instead we played the music for a costume parade, played our roll-a-skeleton game (a dice game, each number gives you another piece of our skeleton, first skeleton fully assembled wins) and ended the night with our traditional monster mash (everyone is generously adorned with glow stick bracelets while we turn out the lights and dance). Eventually we turned on a movie downstairs so the kids could unwind as we cleaned up and our guests trickled out to their own homes.
On Friday I went out with our fabulous Realtor (and one of the infamous favorite aunties) to look at houses. Husband was out of town on business but since his schedule is particularly busy this month, I was trying to do some preliminary work. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted but needed to clarify some details. However, in looking at our options, I found that I loved everything and promptly doubled my range of choices, rather than narrowing them down. But it was a great experience, I learned a lot, fell in love with a few ideas and had lots of research to report back to Husband that night.
That evening, I arrived home just in time to gather up the girls and meet my mom and another favorite auntie (this one from my side of the family) for a quick dinner. We lounged and laughed and played until the girls went to bed and then we played some more (late night chick flick).
Saturday morning was one of those pretty perfect weekend moments where the girls come rolling in, delighted to discover that Daddy had snuck in during the night. We have a tasty and leisurely breakfast while we make plans for the day. Since we had a busy day before us, we immediately set to work. The girls helped me frost cupcakes for that evening's Halloween party and gathered some party materials. Then Husband and I went for a drive so I could show him some favorite results from my house hunting research. It's fun and exciting and a little overwhelming. No official decisions yet but we might be getting closer.
Time flew and we dashed back to the house, gathered the girls and met up with family for a lunch date party. Both of my brothers and their families, plus my cousin and his family, plus another cousin, aunt and my mom were there so we made quite the group. Children outnumbered adults and there was a frenzy of eating, laughing, talking, playing and general mischief. Eventually we headed back to our house where we spent the afternoon raking leaves, cooking dinner for that evening's Halloween party, coloring pictures and playing with toys.
The evening was fantastic. Our Halloween feast (mostly Pinterest inspired) was a blast. We had two kinds of soup accompanied by bones (rolls shaped as such) dripping with blood (strawberry jam), candy corn cups (fruit cups layered with pineapple, mandarin oranges and cool whip), devil's eyes (deviled eggs), graveyard goodies (steamed veggies and crackers artistically arranged and sprinkled with cheese), mummy men (hot dogs wrapped with thin pieces of biscuit dough) and monster cupcakes (cupcakes decorated with candy to be mummies or monsters) for dessert. It was silly and creative and fun and tasted great.
We kicked off the party with donuts on a string before changing into our costumes. The kids paraded and danced while I scrambled to finish assembling our official party games. We started by decorating our monster jugs (empty milk jugs with the top cut off) with scary/fun sticker faces. We used these for bowling and then the kids each kept their jug to collect candy and prizes throughout the night (and could use for trick or treating too if they wanted). We played the eye ball bounce (bouncing ping pong balls into candy-filled cups. if they make the shot, they keep the candy.) and pin-the-spider-on-the-web. We tried playing pumpkin patch (musical chairs using paper plates featuring a giant pumpkin) but my kids were too tired (having missed naptime) and not understanding the game, promptly broke down into tears. So instead we played the music for a costume parade, played our roll-a-skeleton game (a dice game, each number gives you another piece of our skeleton, first skeleton fully assembled wins) and ended the night with our traditional monster mash (everyone is generously adorned with glow stick bracelets while we turn out the lights and dance). Eventually we turned on a movie downstairs so the kids could unwind as we cleaned up and our guests trickled out to their own homes.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
walking
little miss Lovely is walking and its ADORABLE. She's done a step or two for the past few weeks but last Friday she crossed the room, taking several steps (while squealing in excitement) to go to our friend's dog. Upon her arrival, she threw herself a tthe dog, buried her face in her thick fur and giggled and patted and snuggled. The dog was amazingly patient and put it with it.
And then she wouldn't walk again. We tried several times over the next two days but she would try a few steps and then collapse to her knees and scurry away crawling. Until we were visiting a different friend who also happen to have a dog. It was almost an exact repeat of happy squealing and frantic, high stepping, lumbering walk to throw herself at the dog and bury herself in the thick fur.
Apparently she likes dogs.
Two more days passed with no walking (once again). But then I bribed her with cookies and she's been walking ever since. Her big sisters are bursting with pride every time but unfortunately have taken this as invitation to "help" her too often. They pick her up, pulling her to her feet or pick her up and drag her across the room to make her practice walking. But she's my happy go-luck girl and generally puts up with it, slinking down out of their arms and crawling away. Crawling is still faster but her lilting walk makes me melt.
And then she wouldn't walk again. We tried several times over the next two days but she would try a few steps and then collapse to her knees and scurry away crawling. Until we were visiting a different friend who also happen to have a dog. It was almost an exact repeat of happy squealing and frantic, high stepping, lumbering walk to throw herself at the dog and bury herself in the thick fur.
Apparently she likes dogs.
Two more days passed with no walking (once again). But then I bribed her with cookies and she's been walking ever since. Her big sisters are bursting with pride every time but unfortunately have taken this as invitation to "help" her too often. They pick her up, pulling her to her feet or pick her up and drag her across the room to make her practice walking. But she's my happy go-luck girl and generally puts up with it, slinking down out of their arms and crawling away. Crawling is still faster but her lilting walk makes me melt.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
big changes
What a week.
#1 big new item is that we launched Group Kick. So glad it's finally here, we've been training and anticipating for weeks. It was such a blast and a huge success. I team-taught two of the four classes, one of which was so packed we couldn't have fit another person in the room. I team-taught an employee "sneak peek" and it was fantastic. Nerve racking, but fantastic. So for our launch, I felt prepared and it was such a thrill. After our initial launch, we have moved into a regular schedule in which I will be teaching Thursday evening and Friday morning. This week is fall break so it threw us for a loop. My Thursday class was very small, but my co-instructor (the "pro" of the group as she's the most experienced) let me run with it and teach the first half non-stop, definitely an extra level of intensity over our usual alternating schedule. And my Friday morning class was great! It was a good size class and I teach with my neighbor and good friend so I felt more relaxed. So far, my feedback has been encouraging. Comments were made that my cueing is great/well delivered (especially for a first timer) but that I tend to mumble off/ramble in instructing technique (not surprised, its a work in progress). I also need to work on my confidence but that will improve with time as well. I think in general, I'm more self-conscious than most people would think and I hate to admit but I crave verbal feedback/reassurance when I feel out of my element. Group Kick is something new for me and I feel like I'm still creating my "character" as an instructor. It's a different personality than dance or teaching or anything I've done before. It's supposed to be street fighting tough, martial arts strong and authentic. So it's different and challenging in more ways than one and I thoroughly love it.
So the same day as the launch, we got our #2 big news item of the week which was an offer on our house. And since I was already on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, this news just added to it. I ran through the emotions: the initial panicked "wait! are we sure?", the sedated "yeah, this is for the best" to the excited "this is what we want, bring on the next adventure!" We mulled over the offer and concluded it was very reasonable, even generous when we realized we would pay nothing towards closing, it had no contingencies and gave a longer escrow period, allowing us more time to prepare for the move. So we accepted the offer and are making plans to move in with my in-laws for a few months while we choose our next home. And fortunately my mother-in-law will be back in the country soon so we can let her know we're moving in. :)
Big news of the week #3 is Lovely. Our sweet is little baby girl is walking! We were visiting friends last night, bringing them dinner and admiring their brand new, not quite 5 pounds, 5 week old premie baby. Our bigger girls were thrilled to see their older kids and played happily. We chatted, catching up on all the details with one of my long term best friends. It started to rain so they had to let their dog in the house and Lovely was fascinated immediately. She stared at the dog, calling to her, cheering, clapping and bouncing. She had been traversing the couch, regularly stopping, squatting for a toy and standing again (as she has done for weeks). Suddenly she let go and crossed the room, perhaps a five foot distance to go to the dog and then proceeded to follow her around, patting and petting and chattering. Today she has continued, mostly crawling but occasionally pattering those timid, unsteady but anxiously excited toddler steps.
In other news, Lovely is battling another ear infection and doing another round of antibiotics (last month was right ear and amoxicillian, this week was left ear and zithryomax). Butterfly had her first field trip and we made it a family playdate (preschool requires a parent to attend) and all the girls loved it, especially the slides and hay ride. More fun playdates with friends and the girls are loving their dance classes. And today, Butterfly is currently attending her first college football game. Daddy is chaperoning a YM/YW activity and took her with him for a special DaddyDaughterDate. The unfortunate part is that we live in a predominantly BYU ward so it's a BYU game. She was practicing her "Go Utes " cheer and I had to explain this was a different team and it's a good team so we would cheer for them unless they were playing the Utes. Can't wait to hear what she thought of the game. And how everyone reacted when Daddy helped her take her sweater off and realized she was wearing a Ute shirt underneath. :) (don't worry, its the black out game and she'll wear a black jacket over it the whole time anyway.)
#1 big new item is that we launched Group Kick. So glad it's finally here, we've been training and anticipating for weeks. It was such a blast and a huge success. I team-taught two of the four classes, one of which was so packed we couldn't have fit another person in the room. I team-taught an employee "sneak peek" and it was fantastic. Nerve racking, but fantastic. So for our launch, I felt prepared and it was such a thrill. After our initial launch, we have moved into a regular schedule in which I will be teaching Thursday evening and Friday morning. This week is fall break so it threw us for a loop. My Thursday class was very small, but my co-instructor (the "pro" of the group as she's the most experienced) let me run with it and teach the first half non-stop, definitely an extra level of intensity over our usual alternating schedule. And my Friday morning class was great! It was a good size class and I teach with my neighbor and good friend so I felt more relaxed. So far, my feedback has been encouraging. Comments were made that my cueing is great/well delivered (especially for a first timer) but that I tend to mumble off/ramble in instructing technique (not surprised, its a work in progress). I also need to work on my confidence but that will improve with time as well. I think in general, I'm more self-conscious than most people would think and I hate to admit but I crave verbal feedback/reassurance when I feel out of my element. Group Kick is something new for me and I feel like I'm still creating my "character" as an instructor. It's a different personality than dance or teaching or anything I've done before. It's supposed to be street fighting tough, martial arts strong and authentic. So it's different and challenging in more ways than one and I thoroughly love it.
So the same day as the launch, we got our #2 big news item of the week which was an offer on our house. And since I was already on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, this news just added to it. I ran through the emotions: the initial panicked "wait! are we sure?", the sedated "yeah, this is for the best" to the excited "this is what we want, bring on the next adventure!" We mulled over the offer and concluded it was very reasonable, even generous when we realized we would pay nothing towards closing, it had no contingencies and gave a longer escrow period, allowing us more time to prepare for the move. So we accepted the offer and are making plans to move in with my in-laws for a few months while we choose our next home. And fortunately my mother-in-law will be back in the country soon so we can let her know we're moving in. :)
Big news of the week #3 is Lovely. Our sweet is little baby girl is walking! We were visiting friends last night, bringing them dinner and admiring their brand new, not quite 5 pounds, 5 week old premie baby. Our bigger girls were thrilled to see their older kids and played happily. We chatted, catching up on all the details with one of my long term best friends. It started to rain so they had to let their dog in the house and Lovely was fascinated immediately. She stared at the dog, calling to her, cheering, clapping and bouncing. She had been traversing the couch, regularly stopping, squatting for a toy and standing again (as she has done for weeks). Suddenly she let go and crossed the room, perhaps a five foot distance to go to the dog and then proceeded to follow her around, patting and petting and chattering. Today she has continued, mostly crawling but occasionally pattering those timid, unsteady but anxiously excited toddler steps.
In other news, Lovely is battling another ear infection and doing another round of antibiotics (last month was right ear and amoxicillian, this week was left ear and zithryomax). Butterfly had her first field trip and we made it a family playdate (preschool requires a parent to attend) and all the girls loved it, especially the slides and hay ride. More fun playdates with friends and the girls are loving their dance classes. And today, Butterfly is currently attending her first college football game. Daddy is chaperoning a YM/YW activity and took her with him for a special DaddyDaughterDate. The unfortunate part is that we live in a predominantly BYU ward so it's a BYU game. She was practicing her "Go Utes " cheer and I had to explain this was a different team and it's a good team so we would cheer for them unless they were playing the Utes. Can't wait to hear what she thought of the game. And how everyone reacted when Daddy helped her take her sweater off and realized she was wearing a Ute shirt underneath. :) (don't worry, its the black out game and she'll wear a black jacket over it the whole time anyway.)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
quote of the day
Daddy: "Good morning Ladybug? Are you clean and dry?"
Ladybug: "Yeah I clean and dry! Now I get wake up panties and that is my deal."
Daddy: "Oh okay. Good deal."
Ladybug: "Yeah, I go do my mission."
Daddy: "Your mission? You have to get lots bigger and then you can go on a mission."
Ladybug: "No daddy, this is just a little mission. I wake up clean and dry and I get wake up panties! That is my mission!"
silly girl.
Ladybug: "Yeah I clean and dry! Now I get wake up panties and that is my deal."
Daddy: "Oh okay. Good deal."
Ladybug: "Yeah, I go do my mission."
Daddy: "Your mission? You have to get lots bigger and then you can go on a mission."
Ladybug: "No daddy, this is just a little mission. I wake up clean and dry and I get wake up panties! That is my mission!"
silly girl.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
conference weekend
hurray for another fantastic weekend.
Friday evening wasn't a great start to the weekend. I planned a great family evening, homemade pizzas and game night. But my plans fizzled when Daddy had to work late, the girls got sassy and I got cranky. So we made it through the make-our-own-pizzas, (which the girls loved) but didn't accomplish much after that.
The rest of the weekend was pretty perfect though. Saturday morning we woke up, lounged in pajamas and made omelets piled high with veggies from our garden (which we had picked a few night before via flashlight because we lack proper garden diligence and heard last-minute about the impending frost). I diced up not one, but two, habenero peppers to hide in my heat-loving husband's food (and then laughed triumphantly when he began sweating on the first bite). But the joke was on me twenty minutes later when I rubbed my eyes and realized I still had habereno pepper juice on my hands. It was not fun.
Once I recovered, we spent the morning playing dress-ups. I may or may not have fit into one of the dresses I found in the box of costumes we borrowed from my mom. Then we headed to grandpa's house to help dig up his garden. The girls had a ton of fun searching for the "buried treasure" (potatoes) and hiding them before Captain Hook could get them. Even Lovely had a good time, crawling around the driveway, chasing the cat, playing in the dirt and tasting the potatoes. She was eager to help and found a pile of potatoes that had been set aside since they were deemed too small for the collection bin. She tossed each one into the bin, mimicking her sisters, giggling the whole time. Then at one point, I caught Ladybug playing on the patio furniture, mimicking a bench press and she declared that she had to do her "exercisings". We made lunch together and then shipped Daddy off to an afternoon scout activity while the girls and I returned home to get cleaned up and settle in for naps. I watched conference, reviewed choreography for work and then rejoined by Daddy, we spent the evening playing, having dinner and watching a movie.
Sunday morning started with my favorite breakfast (honey wheat waffles, nutella, strawberries, bananas and whip cream). Then we settled in to watch conference. Copying an idea from pinterest, I filled several glasses with different types of snacks (pretzels, cereal, marshmallows, goldfish, m&ms, skittles, swedish fish) and labelled each with a key word (Jesus Christ, prayer, faith, family, church, etc.) Each time the girls heard a key word, they could eat the corresponding snack. It was great! Even better than I expected from my 3 and 4 year old girls. During each song, we got up to dance (not the most reverent but we needed a wiggle break) and then the girls generally returned to their seats quickly and were ready to listen again. They napped through the second session of conference, allowing Husband and I to listen more attentively.
And then we had a great evening playing wii games and having dinner. We don't play our wii as often as we used to so it was a fun treat. We played Toy Story Mania (Butterfly is getting better, she actually understands and interacts and follows directions they way she should) and even played a few songs on RockBand while our crazy girls danced around us. Lovely jabbered nonstop (my new favorite is her frequent "tickle tickle tickle") and demonstrated her growing possessiveness of her favorite blanket by demanding it back from her sisters and nuzzling her face into it whenever someone else tried to play with it.
Friday evening wasn't a great start to the weekend. I planned a great family evening, homemade pizzas and game night. But my plans fizzled when Daddy had to work late, the girls got sassy and I got cranky. So we made it through the make-our-own-pizzas, (which the girls loved) but didn't accomplish much after that.
The rest of the weekend was pretty perfect though. Saturday morning we woke up, lounged in pajamas and made omelets piled high with veggies from our garden (which we had picked a few night before via flashlight because we lack proper garden diligence and heard last-minute about the impending frost). I diced up not one, but two, habenero peppers to hide in my heat-loving husband's food (and then laughed triumphantly when he began sweating on the first bite). But the joke was on me twenty minutes later when I rubbed my eyes and realized I still had habereno pepper juice on my hands. It was not fun.
Once I recovered, we spent the morning playing dress-ups. I may or may not have fit into one of the dresses I found in the box of costumes we borrowed from my mom. Then we headed to grandpa's house to help dig up his garden. The girls had a ton of fun searching for the "buried treasure" (potatoes) and hiding them before Captain Hook could get them. Even Lovely had a good time, crawling around the driveway, chasing the cat, playing in the dirt and tasting the potatoes. She was eager to help and found a pile of potatoes that had been set aside since they were deemed too small for the collection bin. She tossed each one into the bin, mimicking her sisters, giggling the whole time. Then at one point, I caught Ladybug playing on the patio furniture, mimicking a bench press and she declared that she had to do her "exercisings". We made lunch together and then shipped Daddy off to an afternoon scout activity while the girls and I returned home to get cleaned up and settle in for naps. I watched conference, reviewed choreography for work and then rejoined by Daddy, we spent the evening playing, having dinner and watching a movie.
Sunday morning started with my favorite breakfast (honey wheat waffles, nutella, strawberries, bananas and whip cream). Then we settled in to watch conference. Copying an idea from pinterest, I filled several glasses with different types of snacks (pretzels, cereal, marshmallows, goldfish, m&ms, skittles, swedish fish) and labelled each with a key word (Jesus Christ, prayer, faith, family, church, etc.) Each time the girls heard a key word, they could eat the corresponding snack. It was great! Even better than I expected from my 3 and 4 year old girls. During each song, we got up to dance (not the most reverent but we needed a wiggle break) and then the girls generally returned to their seats quickly and were ready to listen again. They napped through the second session of conference, allowing Husband and I to listen more attentively.
And then we had a great evening playing wii games and having dinner. We don't play our wii as often as we used to so it was a fun treat. We played Toy Story Mania (Butterfly is getting better, she actually understands and interacts and follows directions they way she should) and even played a few songs on RockBand while our crazy girls danced around us. Lovely jabbered nonstop (my new favorite is her frequent "tickle tickle tickle") and demonstrated her growing possessiveness of her favorite blanket by demanding it back from her sisters and nuzzling her face into it whenever someone else tried to play with it.
Friday, October 5, 2012
binky kisses
Lovely and I have this little fun (but not so unique) game where I steal her binky by grabbing the end of it with my teeth and pulling it out of her mouth. She giggles, I giggle, it's fantastic. Then I give it back to her, again using only my teeth to hold it and pass it to her to latch onto (more giggling). We played today while I was getting my post nap cuddle, I did it once or twice and then settled in just to chat. She picked up the binky and shoved the back end in my mouth again, apparently not finished with the game. So then I started leaning in, as if I was offering it to her but would drop it at the last minute to get a sloppy kiss. This made her giggle like crazy and she would promptly pick the binky up again and push it into my mouth. I laughed because if she really wanted the binky, she would have just put it in her own mouth. But no, she wanted to play our silly game and I love hearing her giggle.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
quote of the day
I have a secret. I actually have curly hair. But since it's more frizzy than curly, and since curly hair requires significantly more product/time, I choose to straighten it. But when I unraveled my braids, Butterfly saw the curly ripples left and got so excited, "mommy! you have curly hair like me! we match! mommy I love your curlies!" I thanked her and headed for the shower. Then she begged, "mommy, no please don't wash the curlies out of your hair!" It was adorable but she was genuinely sad so I promised I would wear my hair curly so we could match. So I washed and styled my hair. I returned to where she was watching a movie to show her, "oh mommy! I love your curlies! They're not curly like my curlies but we can match!"
Then at church, Butterfly participated in her first Primary program. She was eager to go to the stand and sat proudly and primly in her chair...until the newness wore off and then she bounced and wiggled like the rest of her 4 year old class. but she proudly stood and sang the songs when instructed and she even came to the mike to deliver her assigned part ("We began using our agency in the premortal life when we chose to follow God's plan"). I had practiced with her so I knew that she knew it. But in her nervousness, she relied on the teacher to help and she coached her through it. During the second song, she forgot her "princess persona" and with both hands, waved excitedly at us. Not reverent but certainly cute.
Then at church, Butterfly participated in her first Primary program. She was eager to go to the stand and sat proudly and primly in her chair...until the newness wore off and then she bounced and wiggled like the rest of her 4 year old class. but she proudly stood and sang the songs when instructed and she even came to the mike to deliver her assigned part ("We began using our agency in the premortal life when we chose to follow God's plan"). I had practiced with her so I knew that she knew it. But in her nervousness, she relied on the teacher to help and she coached her through it. During the second song, she forgot her "princess persona" and with both hands, waved excitedly at us. Not reverent but certainly cute.
Lake Powell
Last week was a blissful, fantastic and much-needed vacation for Husband and me. Some friends invited us to join a couples-only trip to Lake Powell on their houseboat. So we arranged with the grandparents to watch our kids (each set of grandparents taking two nights) and we made our escape.
(this is the short version. the long version would include the amazing conversations, billions of photos and countless jokes and small moments that made up for an amazing trip.)
We drove down Tuesday evening, carpooling with another couple from our ward. Our casual acquaintance with them was quickly developed as we chatted away the miles. We arrived close to midnight, were eagerly met by our friends who shuttled us away onto the houseboat and after a brief introduction to the couples we didn't' know, we quickly settled in for the evening.
I didn't sleep particularly well but I got to enjoy the spectacular sunrise and then got up early to help with breakfast. We had a fantastic day! "The Captain", our host, had deemed it to be our excursion day so we packed a lunch and loaded into the speedboat where he whisked us away to explore canyons, hike the "Hole in the Rock" trail, view the arch and hunt for ancient ruins. All along the way, we talked with our new friends and swapped stories. We arrived back at the houseboat just in time for dinner and we quickly joined by the sixth and final couple couple that would be sharing our vacation adventure. That night, we built a campfire on the beach and Husband demonstrated his pyrotechnic skills with his infamous "sobe bombs". Then "Mrs. Captain" brought out her guitar and we had an impromptu singalong/talent show.
after a sunrise waking of bagpipes by one of our talented crew members, we spent most of Thursday morning on the lake. Husband and I both tried wake boarding (he was much more successful than me, but he's had a few more chances than I've had too). I managed to get up and had a few mildly spectacular crashed without hurting myself. Husband did great, cutting across the wake and even doing some jumps. In the afternoon, we went on another short excursion to find the ancient ruins and hieroglyphs and then we hiked "the Crack". It was challenging and fun and reminded me of canyoneering as we scrambled and climbed over rocks. That evening, we had another fantastic dinner and fun evening. Husband and I went for a little walk (okay, I wanted to go skinny dipping. I never have and it's one of those bucket list kind of things so we went. It was fun. :) and cold.) and then we spent the evening sitting on the upper deck talking for hours.
Friday morning kicked off with more water sports. I got to try water surfing and loved it! It was still challenging but not as discouraging as wake boarding (and the crashes weren't as intense!) I got up on my first try and laughed every time I fell over, it was simply so fun. The rest of the group headed out for an afternoon excursion but it was something Husband had already seen several times and didn't sound as interesting to me, so we stayed at the houseboat. He took care of a few pressing work needs while I read. We swam and lounged in the sun together. we rejoined the group for more water sports, dinner and a late evening of playing games like Mafia or simply laughing at the comedy routines of some of our fellow sailors.
We spent Saturday morning on the lake, squeezing in a few more rounds of watersports. I went wake surfing again, Husband went wake boarding and wake surfing. He even managed to jump the entire wake on one of this runs. I went for a ride on the tube with some of the other ladies, getting bounced and tossed and eventually thrown into the water. But eventually, and reluctantly, we packed our things, cleaned the boat and headed for shore. As we drove the boat in, we observed our amazing luck: no accidents, injuries or mishaps. But someone forgot to knock on wood and the "mishaps" began piling in. They started slow, we had some trouble dumping the boat's tanks and trouble refilling the propane. Then we drove the speedboats to the ramp and sent husband to fetch the boat and trailer. We waited over an hour as he discovered the car had been booted and we had to be escorted by a sheriff to the decontamination station where we were lectured and ticketed for an illegal launch (they had the wrong forms, an honest mistake but illegal nevertheless). Eventually we got underway but then one of our cars were stopped for speeding and another stopped for a flat tire. Lesson? be grateful and don't tempt fate. We stopped for dinner as the final moment to celebrate our trip with friends and it was with much reluctance that we left. In such a short time, we felt like we had gotten to know each other so well and even though we all missed our kids and such, it was sad to see our perfect vacation come to an end.
(this is the short version. the long version would include the amazing conversations, billions of photos and countless jokes and small moments that made up for an amazing trip.)
We drove down Tuesday evening, carpooling with another couple from our ward. Our casual acquaintance with them was quickly developed as we chatted away the miles. We arrived close to midnight, were eagerly met by our friends who shuttled us away onto the houseboat and after a brief introduction to the couples we didn't' know, we quickly settled in for the evening.
I didn't sleep particularly well but I got to enjoy the spectacular sunrise and then got up early to help with breakfast. We had a fantastic day! "The Captain", our host, had deemed it to be our excursion day so we packed a lunch and loaded into the speedboat where he whisked us away to explore canyons, hike the "Hole in the Rock" trail, view the arch and hunt for ancient ruins. All along the way, we talked with our new friends and swapped stories. We arrived back at the houseboat just in time for dinner and we quickly joined by the sixth and final couple couple that would be sharing our vacation adventure. That night, we built a campfire on the beach and Husband demonstrated his pyrotechnic skills with his infamous "sobe bombs". Then "Mrs. Captain" brought out her guitar and we had an impromptu singalong/talent show.
after a sunrise waking of bagpipes by one of our talented crew members, we spent most of Thursday morning on the lake. Husband and I both tried wake boarding (he was much more successful than me, but he's had a few more chances than I've had too). I managed to get up and had a few mildly spectacular crashed without hurting myself. Husband did great, cutting across the wake and even doing some jumps. In the afternoon, we went on another short excursion to find the ancient ruins and hieroglyphs and then we hiked "the Crack". It was challenging and fun and reminded me of canyoneering as we scrambled and climbed over rocks. That evening, we had another fantastic dinner and fun evening. Husband and I went for a little walk (okay, I wanted to go skinny dipping. I never have and it's one of those bucket list kind of things so we went. It was fun. :) and cold.) and then we spent the evening sitting on the upper deck talking for hours.
Friday morning kicked off with more water sports. I got to try water surfing and loved it! It was still challenging but not as discouraging as wake boarding (and the crashes weren't as intense!) I got up on my first try and laughed every time I fell over, it was simply so fun. The rest of the group headed out for an afternoon excursion but it was something Husband had already seen several times and didn't sound as interesting to me, so we stayed at the houseboat. He took care of a few pressing work needs while I read. We swam and lounged in the sun together. we rejoined the group for more water sports, dinner and a late evening of playing games like Mafia or simply laughing at the comedy routines of some of our fellow sailors.
We spent Saturday morning on the lake, squeezing in a few more rounds of watersports. I went wake surfing again, Husband went wake boarding and wake surfing. He even managed to jump the entire wake on one of this runs. I went for a ride on the tube with some of the other ladies, getting bounced and tossed and eventually thrown into the water. But eventually, and reluctantly, we packed our things, cleaned the boat and headed for shore. As we drove the boat in, we observed our amazing luck: no accidents, injuries or mishaps. But someone forgot to knock on wood and the "mishaps" began piling in. They started slow, we had some trouble dumping the boat's tanks and trouble refilling the propane. Then we drove the speedboats to the ramp and sent husband to fetch the boat and trailer. We waited over an hour as he discovered the car had been booted and we had to be escorted by a sheriff to the decontamination station where we were lectured and ticketed for an illegal launch (they had the wrong forms, an honest mistake but illegal nevertheless). Eventually we got underway but then one of our cars were stopped for speeding and another stopped for a flat tire. Lesson? be grateful and don't tempt fate. We stopped for dinner as the final moment to celebrate our trip with friends and it was with much reluctance that we left. In such a short time, we felt like we had gotten to know each other so well and even though we all missed our kids and such, it was sad to see our perfect vacation come to an end.
my little bird
When Lovely is happy or excited, she flaps her arms like a little bird. If she's really excited she even kicks and giggles and flaps so hard I think she might fly away.
Each moment seems like a new discovery with her. She's at a fantastic age of discovery and new achievements and I love watching her face as the world unfolds to her.
She teases us, threatening her first step. She traverses easily and quickly and stands perfectly on her own for extended lengths of time. She evens squats to pick something up and stands again, without needing assistance to find her balance. But her record remains two steps.
She's babbling and some sounds are becoming more clear like "dada", "mom", "tank you", "please" and "up", "more".
She's graduated to cow's milk but she's still taking it in a bottle as she seems unimpressed by the sippy cups we've offered However, she does like to use a straw and she LOVES drinking from a regular cup. We may skip sippy cups all together.
We lost her binky yesterday. Fortunately, she was busy and distracted through the evening and then was so tired that she fell asleep without it. But this afternoon, she decided she was missing it and then threw an epic fit when I couldn't find it. I spent two hours searching for it and concluded I must have lost it at church. She's not particularly dependent on it unless she's tired so it can be easy to overlook when we haven't needed it. She screamed and cried a tired/teething cry while I searched and tried to give her an impostor binky. It was even the same brand and color, and I put it on the same kind of binky leash thinking that she wouldn't mind. She disagreed. Even without looking, she could tell it was not the beloved binky of the past several months. I concluded she must be that sensitive to the texture of her old one, probably softer from months of use. I've worn her down through the evening and she grudgingly accepted the impostor binky this evening for bed.
Each moment seems like a new discovery with her. She's at a fantastic age of discovery and new achievements and I love watching her face as the world unfolds to her.
She teases us, threatening her first step. She traverses easily and quickly and stands perfectly on her own for extended lengths of time. She evens squats to pick something up and stands again, without needing assistance to find her balance. But her record remains two steps.
She's babbling and some sounds are becoming more clear like "dada", "mom", "tank you", "please" and "up", "more".
She's graduated to cow's milk but she's still taking it in a bottle as she seems unimpressed by the sippy cups we've offered However, she does like to use a straw and she LOVES drinking from a regular cup. We may skip sippy cups all together.
We lost her binky yesterday. Fortunately, she was busy and distracted through the evening and then was so tired that she fell asleep without it. But this afternoon, she decided she was missing it and then threw an epic fit when I couldn't find it. I spent two hours searching for it and concluded I must have lost it at church. She's not particularly dependent on it unless she's tired so it can be easy to overlook when we haven't needed it. She screamed and cried a tired/teething cry while I searched and tried to give her an impostor binky. It was even the same brand and color, and I put it on the same kind of binky leash thinking that she wouldn't mind. She disagreed. Even without looking, she could tell it was not the beloved binky of the past several months. I concluded she must be that sensitive to the texture of her old one, probably softer from months of use. I've worn her down through the evening and she grudgingly accepted the impostor binky this evening for bed.
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